Stars on Ice 2014

The cast is not announced yet, but the tickets are on sale now, so maybe it's a time to buy good locations now. For those who have more experience with those shows: is there a chance the current champions will be in the cast? Especially Yulia or Adelina? Or even Yuna?
I want to buy tickets now before it's too late, but I really don't want to be limited to Hammill, Gordeeva and Browning only, even though I respect them a lot. The new youth is the main magnet for me.

The U.S. tour hints in an early January release that Ashley, Gracie, and Meryl & Charlie will be on the tour. Tessa & Scott will almost surely be on the Canadian tour. Other than that, I think fans have to wait till SOI announces the final cast?

The U.S. tour hints in an early January release that Ashley, Gracie, and Meryl & Charlie will be on the tour. Tessa & Scott will almost surely be on the Canadian tour. Other than that, I think fans have to wait till SOI announces the final cast?

The U.S. tour hints in an early January release that Ashley, Gracie, and Meryl & Charlie will be on the tour. Tessa & Scott will almost surely be on the Canadian tour. Other than that, I think fans have to wait till SOI announces the final cast?

It's great that eligible skaters can skate in SOI, so that current skaters can not only be seen by us but can also gain valuable presentation experience--not to mention advice by the longtime stalwarts of the cast.

It would be nice if Aliona and Robin could at some point take part in SOI. As performers they would enjoy the greater potential for artistry that SOI allows for.

I doubt julia or adelina go, they have given no indication that they are going to retire. Why do the Stars show that will distract from training and pour more stress on them by being away from home, to a country where they don't speak the language.

Russia has nobody the American Stars on Ice would even want now other than Voloshzar & Trankov, but not sure if V&T have any interest or not. The interest in the Russian ladies who are not popular anywhere but Russia would be nil. Stars on Ice tends to prefer North American skaters. They used to have more Russians but that was in the day of more popular Russian stars like Gordeeva & Grinkov, Bechke & Petrov, Kulik, Urmanov, Yagudin, Klimova & Ponomarenko.

I doubt julia or adelina go, they have given no indication that they are going to retire. Why do the Stars show that will distract from training and pour more stress on them by being away from home, to a country where they don't speak the language.

You don't have to retire to skate in SOI; you can remain eligible. And many SOI people speak Russian.

In the days of the show Champions on Ice, all the international medal winners including Irina Slutskaya took part in an American tour year after year.

On the other hand, these days, Russia itself has enough ice shows (and Europe also has some) that Russian skaters don't need to travel all the way to the U.S. to find opportunities to perform in a show. In fact, there are better, more popular shows in Europe (including Russia) and parts of Asia than there currently are in North America. So yes, it's unlikely that Julia or Adelina would come to SOI. Who knows? Their popularity is so huge right now in Russia that they might get a TV special show planned around them. I don't know if Russia does stuff like that, but the U.S. used to in the days of Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, and Brian Boitano.

Russia has nobody the American Stars on Ice would even want now other than Voloshzar & Trankov, but not sure if V&T have any interest or not. The interest in the Russian ladies who are not popular anywhere but Russia would be nil. Stars on Ice tends to prefer North American skaters. They used to have more Russians but that was in the day of more popular Russian stars like Gordeeva & Grinkov, Bechke & Petrov, Kulik, Urmanov, Yagudin, Klimova & Ponomarenko.

I was once on SOI and I saw more Russians than Americans. It was directly after Slutskaya and Yagudin retired, but there were many eligible skaters there. And Yulia would be a HUGE magnet. She enjoys a tremendous popularity worldwide. Many people would want to come just to see her.

The U.S. tour hints in an early January release that Ashley, Gracie, and Meryl & Charlie will be on the tour. Tessa & Scott will almost surely be on the Canadian tour. Other than that, I think fans have to wait till SOI announces the final cast?

Virtue/Moir and Chan already were announced as CSOI cast members before Sochi, IIRC. I think maybe Osmond already has been announced too.

Abbott also has been pre-announced for this year's U.S. SOI, along with those mentioned by Doris.

I wouldn't yet. The January announcement sounded much more positive for the active skaters than I remember from 2010. The announcement of the cast is so soon, March 4 I think? that you might as well wait and see.

It seems they are running two separate teams this year, one for US and the other for Canada/Japan. Most of the cast for the Canadian part is announced already, all of them Canadians. I guess the US tour will be mostly Americans, too.

I understand that they can skate the SOI and still be eligible for competitions; I was speaking more of the training perspective - if they are doing a bunch of shows then that is (at least from my perspective) likely to take away from their training for the upcoming season.

Originally Posted by Olympia

And many SOI people speak Russian.

But they would still be in the US (if they did SOI) where they would be staying in hotels, eating at restaurants, shopping, etc. around a large amount of people that they can't converse with and maybe can't even understand (not sure what their comprehension of English is - I know they both use a translator for their Q&A's). And both teenagers would, most likely, be away from their families for the duration of the time they are on the tour.